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I've never really understood the concept behind a dark start. Chuck in the plants, turn on the lights and go for it! Plants won't be hurt - the concern around a non-mature tank is for the health of livestock.

Welcome to the world of aquascaping. :)

I use normal 16/22mm hose to water change my 75l & 145l tanks.

Looking very good :) Quite an unusual bit of wood! If it helps I read that you can use capillary matting (for greenhouses etc) attaching it to the wood to create a wet area for a large section of moss etc. Similar to ADA's Terra Tape just a whole world cheaper :)

I use a syringe with a 10cm blunt needle for dosing liquids into the tank. Being a blunt needle I have not managed to stab myself yet but early days :D Also found some plastic clamps to be invaluable for holding water change hose / drip acclimatisation pipe. Enough force to stay still without...

This is cool. Looking forward to seeing the progress

Thanks again Wookii :) I shall just keep it at 30 percent its more than enough visually and I am trying to be cautious on creating algae problems. Like I say its probably total overkill for my needs but if in the distant future I ever wanted to go down the CO2 route I like the flexibility. I...

The nymphaea lotus is probably about 8 years old. It was originally in a planted 270 litre aquarium. I relocated it to my previous pond when I started keeping Tanganyikan Cichlids. It has flowered on occasions (see pic). Hopefully it will flower again in the new pond. The pond does have an...

Like you, I’m also a koi keeper and also enjoy aquascaping. Your scape looks great👍

Hi there, Giving up networks has allowed me to refocus on aquascaping, so I emptied my iwagumi last week and decided to use the lovely hakkai stones again, but in combination with one of my favourite wood, the river wood. When I work on a new aquascape , my main goal is to make all the...

Nice looking new tank!! Good to see you've reused old filter media etc to keep beneficial bacteria :) miss Betta and the tetras might like some leaf litter if you fancy adding tannins! It'll also help darken up the substrate, and goes with the junglistic vibe :)

I have a couple of these things which are super useful for shutting off flow or just restricting non solid tubing. Here's an amazon link for similar Possibly someone's made something that can be printed. Then you can just keep your tube and restrict the flow. An alternative that might be a bit...

I use an ADA one, but I also have an old vintage one I use with Stanley blades. I can’t really tell much of a difference.

I use one that lets you mount your own common razor, which you can pick up in your local supermarket for a quid. As long as you stay clear of to the silicone and don't pick up sand with it, it won't do any damage.

Okay you guys are going to think I am nuts. As you can tell, one of the three cubes is a used Opti-white tank (the 30cm cube). I'd never had a low-iron tank before and to be honest I love it. The glass colouration on the other two cubes was getting to me; I also felt the Embers were not at all...

Went for it after work today, mostly planted up and the shenanigans of getting that wood to attach to the stone. The stone the wood rests on was very heavy and the angle to glue left me no choice but to remove the wood and glue outside of the tank. A bit of a mare, I covered the glue...

I've been running both my low tech tanks at relatively low light as well as long (12-13 hour) photoperiods for some 4 years now. Most plants in the easy to medium category will thrive under relatively low light - in some parts of my tanks I can barely see what's going on at the bottom but plants...

I have Anubias Petite attached to driftwood - a notorious slow grower. I think I added them 3 years ago or so.... They are healthy, but I hardly notice any growth at all - they do put out a new leaf now and then. I think a lot of these slow growers are exclusively cultivated fully or partially...

It is very cool that you can grow a nymphaea lotus outdoors in the UK (I assume you are in UK, no location in profile). Does that ever flower? Also I didn't see an overflow pipe in the pics. How are you managing the overflow when we have weather like it has been recently?

Before seeing < this post > I never had an aquarium related nightmare. :lol: Cheers, Michael

The perspective achieved here is impressive. Great looking rock, great scape overall!

Hi all, That is the problem, there is now so much information (<"most of it wrong">) that it is really difficult to sort out the <"coffee from the froth">. It won't have done any harm and if you haven't got access to filter material, or are going to keep <"a tank without plants"> it is a...

Hi all, My pygmy corydoras are showing signs of fluke/parasites again. Normally I would repeat treatment of the NT Labs Anti-Fluke & Wormer, but my tank now has amano shrimps so this is no longer possible as Flubendazole is lethal to inverts. If I move the Amanos to my other tank, cross...

Thanks for the info, your posts and referenced materials have been extremely useful. And yes I used APT start, but I did initially order API quick start which I have returned. (The names are a little confusing). I also could have mentioned I don’t really have access to any used filter media...

Thanks, that helps! For reference, 12/16 is 1/2" and 16/22 is 5/8". The hose I'm using is 19 mm ID for comparison.

Also, if relevant I’m using tropica aqua soil which I understand has a fairly high release of ammonia in the first weeks? Part of the reason I was going with dark start was to hopefully give the tissue culture plants I will use a better shot of survival. I will be planting all easy plants with...

Wood is 75mm, Insulation is 25mm polystyrene (see pic).

Hi all, Welcome to UKAPS, APT Start? I think it includes ammonia as well as "nitrifying bacteria" <"https://www.amazon.co.uk/2HR-Aquarist-Aquarium-substrate-enrichment/dp/B0BTD3CF1S">. If it is "API Start" <"https://apifishcare.com/product/quick-start">, it says "suitable for saltwater and...

Thanks! I should have mentioned 2 weeks ago I had no interest or knowledge about fish but something about the plants/fish/snail/shrimp eco system type tanks really interests me. So no suprise of there is a lack of wisdom haha I did use APT Start, which if I understand correctly (I probably...

Much depends on the size of the tank and how much water you want to remove at a time. I don’t bother with hoses any more but a 10mm is big enough on something like my 60L. When I had a 250L I used a 12/16 hose and found that more than big enough.

I use 16/22 hose.Don't know what that is in imperial.

So only had first tank for a little under a year and I'm hooked. I've kept tropical before many years ago and currently keep koi in a 3k gallon informal pond! What can I say, I love fish! This will be my second tank and is being setup in my shed/pond filter house (I'm not allowed a second tank...

So, I've always had tanks small enough to comfortably use buckets to change the water. I've sized up and am getting used to pumping water from my sink and then draining directly into the garden. It's great, but I think my hose is too big. It's 3/4" ID x 50 ft and it moves the water too fast. I...

Plants and time...

This looks great and an outdoor tropical pond is something I considered in the summer. What type of insulation have you used?

Love your choice of wood. Looks great. Not sure of the wisdom of API start, without something to start the cycle. Some use ammonia, I favour plants.

This is off the scale! Looks stunning and super natural! Congrats!

My two Korat kittens - Yoshi & Yuki :)

A few weeks ago I was looking at a friends 75 gallon planted tank and then went down a rabbit hole on YouTube/these forums and it has really sparked an interest. Anyways, this is my first time setting up a fish tank/trying aquascaping. The tank is an ADA 45p (45x27x30). Initially I was going...

...issue. I'm going back to 15%. I believe the plants take a long time to "get going" and if driven hard by crazy levels of photons, they just don't efficiently process this and the tank goes to s**t :D Lower light, but enough to "drive" the plant and a longer photoperiod are where it is at for me!

Lovely scape mate 👌🏻

Just a quick reminder to any members new or old that this Sub Forum exists with some truly exceptional Aquarium Journals. I would recommend getting yourself a cuppa and taking the time to explore these journals, appreciating what was achieved, often at a time when much of the excepted...

Hi, I like these! Only issue I've found using them is that I think they can obstruct surface agitation if you have low flow. probably best to use them to contain floating plants, rather than create pockets of negative space.

The recent cold spell we had prompted me to add a cover to the Pond. I used plastic trunking for construction rather than treated timber to prevent leaching of chemicals into the water and rot. Added a pic of the cover and also a graph showing pond temperature prior to and after adding the...

I like this idea! I use a palette knife. I don't know if you've ever used a safety razor, but to me it's a similar concept - go slow, keep blade close to the glass/skin at a small angle, don't go for jolting sideways movement. The benefit of palette knives/credit cards is that they flex, so you...

Hi all, I think that is true of all <"slow growing plants">. I'm pretty sure you are right. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I did <"Kitchen nano 35L">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, @Notimetoulouse when did you start using the PhosGuard <"Seachem - PhosGuard">? Was it before plant growth declined? I've found that a few times with tap water be have sent me and I've tested. Phosphate (PO4---) is both <"relatively easy to test for, and is added to ~all UK tap water">...

Oh its always a leaking tank for me - always. I've woke in the middle of the night plenty of times, and rushed downstairs to check a tank wasn't leaking everywhere.

Tankxiety is real 😅 I’m yet to dream-nightmare about my fishes. My worst nightmare is always about my indoor cat escaping and me madly chasing after him 😭 Perhaps it just means how much we care for our pets ❤️

Saw her catch a fly just now. Oh and name chosen Sakura

You are probably right. I think I got lulled to thinking this strain/batch was a sure fire thing in my water after having them and moving them about in my tanks for years. I will surely be more careful moving forward.

I don't know quite how to describe it but the scale reminds me of a windswept highland being grazed by cow-sized shrimp - it's a weirdly serene, absurdist picture 😅 weirdly enough, the cat might be adding some fertiliser too - @dw1305 found with a bowl of plants left on the counter and a...

How fast Anubias spread depends on the variety and whether you have CO2. In my CO2 tank, the large leaf varieties grow fastest requiring pruning 3 to 4 times yearly to control size. The median leaf “nana”varieties grow half as fast, requiring pruning no more than twice a year. The “nano...

So I flooded the tank on 9/5 and planned to do a dark start of some length. Since I’m using a somewhat experimental substrate, I thought it would be beneficial to let the most labile organic matter break down and give the developing microbiome a head start. And I immediately ran into trouble...

Thanks! I got mine thirdhand and already pretty scratched up, but I can't complain - the discount was well worth it. it was a ridiculous late night FB marketplace purchase, and much too big for my tiny flat 😂

Just realised @dw1305 never posted a photo of our cat (you may know her as the bad-tempered light diffuser), Minnie. She is a little elderly lady now, but she's still pretty lively. Whenever I go home she burrows under the covers with me (cute, but god forbid you move). She is a rescue, and...

Low on the Biomaster and very low on the Eheim at present.

Rays tank was probably a years growth, buce are pretty speedy compared to anubias even without co2 as long as you trim to get 'ramification?'. If you have a look at my shrimp tank journal you can see the change after a year or so and then up to 5 years, it's pretty dense now and cut out the...

Hi there, thanks for sharing that! Yeah, I tried to remove it but a bit half heartedly, I think as I’d bought the tank new I was a bit worried I’d scratch or worse, crack it or otherwise compromise it! You are clearly made of sterner stuff so well done!! I have to say that as a filter it’s...

Not all my fish dreams are nightmares! Occasionally I go to cool fish stores. I don't remember too much, mostly just images from a few different dreams, but I do remember there was one that had a cool restricted area that you had to be "in the know" about and climb a ladder up to a hatch to get...

Hi @Simmo, great to see the tank in its many iterations! I also have a juwel lido and managed to remove the internal filter (with some effort) using an oil paint palette knife to cut through the silicone. I did this before I scaped. It was a bit of a risky process as I was worried about exerting...

Yes it is. I’m using Anubias bonsai which is branching a lot. The bigger it gets the quicker it will spread. It did spread over much bigger space in recent months than it did over first year. I used to have Anubias barteri in my previous tank and it grew into quite long rhizome over 1 year and...

You heard it here first

I don’t think you can have too much air in the water.

Hi, Some more patches of mosses and hc were added along with more shrimps. Cheers

Hello hello Thank you so much for your very detailed reply! I really appreciate it. I currently has an air bubbler, I wonder if that cause too much air in the water? should i stop that?

@hypnogogia I did wonder about that 😅 if I'm being honest, my therapist and I have given up interpreting my fish-related dreams... Turns out it really is just tank anxiety (tankxiety?), and not pointing towards a deeper psychological issue 😂

Some video VIDEO

This thread is going to be a psychologist’s dream!

@palcente what a good assistant you have :) not my cat, but here's my partners; fluffy mike. He is a bedraggled, elderly man, named after rapper Killer Mike & "sergeant fluffy" (the younger brother's suggestion).

Hi all, I realised after a post on my journal that lots of us seem to have unique and terrifying fish-related dreams. I thought I'd compile them here and see if anyone has any others to add... Partly so we can all see our dreams are very ridiculous, but also so I don't inadvertently trip across...

Right, I think I'm making a thread of fishkeeping dreams 😂 didn't realise there were so many different flavours of nightmare fuel! Edit: thread here :)

My aquatic stress dream is that I neglected a tank for some period of time and, while everything is still alive, the tank is also now inhabited by a very large eel like creature that scares the hell out of me. I can’t get the eel out so the dream never resolves, just remains high anxiety until I...

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. The old aquarium is moderately stocked, so expect the ammonia source to be relatively abundant. My thinking is that a good amount of Ammonia means that there need to be enough Nitrite critters to address. I am scratching my head as to why Nitrite has not gone...

The tank is looking great. I imagine people will say otherwise, but in my limited experience shrimp are all about stability. You can have them in a bowl that looks like soup and have no issues. Personally, I'd leave it for a couple of months with a new scape, especially if you're doing big water...

Channoides are absolutely gorgeous! I also like the look of Betta imbellis and smaragdina, although I've never kept them. I know bettas like a lot of live food, so that's something to consider. It's also definitely more ethical to go for UK bred stock, as opposed to wild caught fish - a lot of...

Very. I've started prepping plants and am doing a total water change as soon as the kids get to bed. I don't think I'll get it all planted tonight, but I'm going to try to get all the rooted plants in with the water drained, refill, and then suffer through the stem plants tomorrow... probably...

The cavalry has arrived! I got the Dennerle plants and they are now in the tank. The tetras were out calmly looking at what was going on (I could hear something like "this guy has no clue" from their side). So... Very happy with the limnobium laevigatum, long roots and relatively easy to...

How close are you to planting? 😊

I really recommend it for anyone having a hard time keeping track of everything. This started as a drawn layout, but it's much harder to move things around and it's more or less to scale. I mean, you could make them to scale, but I didn't want to spend too long on it. Lol, it only took a few...

Looking forward!

I'm certainly no expert and stand to be corrected but just throwing it out there, is it possible that in the existing aquarium that once the bacteria/archaea had built up enough to deal with the high level of Nitrite at initial start-up would they then not reduce in number along with the...

I thought that, but there isn't much of a high ammonia source. No inhabitants, just aquairium soil (Tropica) and plants.

@ElleDee, Can't wait to see how it evolves. I've been procrastinating as well for a long time about rebuilding/replanting one of my tanks (150 L). There are just too much to do in real life at the moment, but I hope to get around to it later in the fall before the Minnesota winter sets in so...

Perhaps your’re producing nitrites as fast as they’re being broken down…

Sorry to hear about your shrimp, but if it's any consolation your tank is looking great!

Thanks Michael, I appreciate the advice and reassurance. I think I'm quite worrisome about it as this is my first experience of having livestock in the aquarium.

Get this all the time, though usually I have somehow acquired some huge tanks filled with all sorts. Totally genuinely, last night for some reason there were also several monkeys living in the emersed parts who I had neglected. They all escaped into the house and were quite bitey trying to get...

If your tap water is very low on Mg (especially relative to Calcium), the addition of Epsom salt will be beneficial for both shrimps and plants. Your shrimps needs Magnesium to support building their exoskeleton (Mg helps absorption of Ca). And of course, the plants appreciate the Mg as well...

What sort of bioload do you have in your aquarium?

I wanted to recharge the Purigen on the Eheim so I took this picture of the Siporax in it yesterday. Still quite white after 9 months. I fitted a sponge on the inlet pipe of the Biomaster a few months back so I may start cleaning the Siporax in it in batches to see what happens.

Thank you, so much for the drawing makes it so much easier to visualise it.

Darrel, this is great advice and I thank you for it. The phosguard is in because I bought an API phosphate test kit that had it right in the upper echelon blue of the card spectrum. It's out now!

That is what I call a propper planning phase!! So organised @ElleDee !

Here is an interesting question to ponder., @dw1305 et al. I am cycling my newly planted aquarium. It's been 15 days, and there is no ammonia, but nitrites are spiking between 1-2ppm. It's going through its process. Now, in the new aquarium, with the aquarium soil and CO2 injection, the pH is...

Inventory of items found beneath cabinet after 1 year: Two wooden beads One duplo door One small bamboo trumpeter One '3' One wooden police department front Two hairbands (one pink, one black) One childs bracelet One invitro pot lid 1.5 crayons One hair clip (gold coloured) Small blob of...

I love that paper plan

...probably makes it more unlikely that his full research findings will appear in a scientific journal. Hagen already supply a "microbial supplement"*, so it will be interesting to see if it has a "new formula" re-launch in the future <"A7595 - Nutrafin Cycle - Biological Aquarium Supplement -...

Hi all, Could be either. I've only kept "Standard" Cherry Shrimps, where even the females weren't particularly red. cheers Darrel